IRA pull out of weapon decomissioning process - not that they had done much.

[anarchywrksbest]

British Government: Give up your guns.
IRA: No
British Government: Please.
IRA: Oh OK then.
British Government: Good.
IRA: But only if we can steal £26 million to buy new ones.
British Government: WTF?!
IRA: Well screw you then, if you're going to be like that!

As for Sinn Fein, they can't be part of a proper democracy with their own private army. I seem to remember stories of SF supporters threatening polling officials during the last election to keep the stations open.

 

[gael]

I'm gonna give you the benifit of the doubt and quess your just looking an arguement for arguments sake but know better than this linear view your putting across.

We're on both sides of sh*t kicking contest, lets not get into it.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Hey boths sides are as bad as bad as each other I know that.

 

[LoughlinNR]

@britannia - do you really think us sending troops would help? we would be in ireland and that would be an act of war, maybe you should think before you type... or is it that you want us to have an empire again? if i were you i would steer clear of the bnp website, its like soooooo uncool!

 

[yaroslav]

The IRA is a terrorist organization, I am always surprised of much international support it gets

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Well, they say people get the government they deserve.

Spoiler :

I don't recall knife-raping any nuns though...

 

[anarchywrksbest]

@britannia - do you really think us sending troops would help? we would be in ireland and that would be an act of war, maybe you should think before you type... or is it that you want us to have an empire again? if i were you i would steer clear of the bnp website, its like soooooo uncool!

Sending troops to Northern Ireland wouldn't be an act of war since it is part of the UK and there are already lots of soldiers here anyway.

 

[Britannia]

Originally Posted by LoughlinNR
@britannia - do you really think us sending troops would help? we would be in ireland and that would be an act of war, maybe you should think before you type... or is it that you want us to have an empire again? if i were you i would steer clear of the bnp website, its like soooooo uncool!

As anarchywrksbest pointed out NI is a part of the UK, it is our land and in our land we can deploy troops wherever we damn well please. What other options is there than to destroy the terrorist groups in NI? If we leave the IRA and their stockpiles of weapons alone they can resume their terrorist activities anytime they don't get what they want at the negotiating table.

When I was in NI we all knew who were the terrorists and we had a good idea where they keeping their weapons, but a lot of the time we weren't allowed to do anything about it incase we started a riot, and we couldn't allow that could we that would put the government in a bad light, who gives a **** if us soldiers are having potshots taking at us, having rocks thrown at us with bits of steel sticking out of them, all that matters is that the politicians are sleeping in a comfortable bed. If the army had been given a free hand we could have sorted it out there and then, sure the IRA would have hit back at civillians but in the end they would have been disarmed.

What would your solution to the problem be LoughlinNR? Continue to negotiate with murderers that killed civillians and British troops and let the Republicans keep their army, so they can kill a few more civillians or troops perhaps?

Originally Posted by yaroslav
The IRA is a terrorist organization, I am always surprised of much international support it gets

I know its amazing, it's not as if we're enslaving the Republicans if they gave up their weapons they could democratically elect representatives to a devolved NI assembly not to mention the UK parliament.

 

[LoughlinNR]

i have no problem with sorting out the terrorists in ni but its in roi that most of the ira are, if you wanted to stop the ira you would have to go into the republic and thats what i was talking about,you cant destory a terrorist group with force, all it ever does is get more support for the terrorist group, look at the plo, they would have never have gone peacefull if it wasnt for negotiation

 

[Britannia]

Originally Posted by LoughlinNR
i have no problem with sorting out the terrorists in ni but its in roi that most of the ira are, if you wanted to stop the ira you would have to go into the republic and thats what i was talking about,you cant destory a terrorist group with force, all it ever does is get more support for the terrorist group, look at the plo, they would have never have gone peacefull if it wasnt for negotiation

You're over estimating the power of the IRA. Most of the IRA's weapon stockpiles are in NI, sure some IRA leaders might get away to Ireland or the US but we would get most of them and most of their weapons within 5 years or even 1 year if the Military is giving complete control of the operation. As for more weapons coming in to NI that is not as big of a threat as it was, the border with Ireland is small and easy to intercept weapons coming from the Republic. The problem from the past was weapons coming in from the US and that threat has been diminished in the past decade or so with better law enforcement on the American side.

You're claim that you can't destroy a terrorist group with force is false, our situation is not comparable to the Israeli situation these are not some lunatic Muslims who think that if they blow themselves up they will go to heaven. We are talking about a "traditional" terrorist group. I don't doubt that there will be riots on the Republican side but we can deal with it. Most will give up when they see that they can't win and if the alternative is a democratic say in how NI is run then a lot hopefully will see that the IRA is not worth fighting for. When we have smashed the IRA a peace process towards a devolved parliament, where both sides will have equal rights and a say relative to their demographic strength, can begin again.

And btw I'm not suggesting that we go in to Ireland, you're right that would be an act of war.

 

[yaroslav]

Britannia, from the Spanish experience (we also had some "traditional" terrorist group, ETA and GRAPO) it appears that an slow compromise between:

-public pressure in the supporters of terrorism
-getting a clear reject from the people in the zone
and
-slow but constant police pressure

work better than any other thing, if slow. Although our situation is not comparable, because we have not the equivalent of unionist terrorism, there was a GAL group against ETA many years ago, but we processed and jailed the people responsible of that (including a minister).

 

[Britannia]

work better than any other thing, if slow. Although our situation is not comparable, because we have not the equivalent of unionist terrorism, there was a GAL group against ETA many years ago, but we processed and jailed the people responsible of that (including a minister).

Yep thats what makes our situation such a problem, trying to set up a devolved parliament and getting the 2 sides working together or at least talking to each other, where as I believe the Basques already have a fair amount of independance.

We've been trying some of the methods that you have been trying with limited success, at least we got them to sit down in the same assembly but that soon went pear shaped.
I just don't see what else we can do other than a military operation to remove the IRA from the equation altogether. We're trying to set up a new devolved parliament but we can't because neither side wants to! And I just don't trust the IRA, they could at any time go back to terrorism if they wanted.

If the IRA were removed then the Unionists could have no objections to sharing power with the Republicans and the Republicans would surely want a say in the running of NI as thats the best they can hope for as they will never get a united Ireland.

I suppose my personal feelings play a big part in it aswell as I lost a good mate to these ******** and the thought of letting them go just knaws at me, I see it as a betrayal to all of us that served there and all of those that died.